The Cannes Film Festival 2021 and Tuscany

The films shot in our beautiful region in competition at Cannes 74

If this year as an Italian film in competition for one of the most historic and important film festivals we have only Tre piani (Three floors) by Nanni Moretti, already Palme d'Or in 2001 with La stanza del figlio, there are three productions shot in Tuscany that will be presented at the Cannes Film Festival 74, which after last year's stop finally returns in presence, on the famous and ultra glamorous Promenade de la Croisette.

Let's start with the film in competition for the main prize: Blessed Virgin, by Paul Verhoeven, director of Hollywood films such as Robocop, Act of Strength, Starship, The Man Without a Shadow, Black Book, and films such as Basic Instinct and Elle. The work he brings to Cannes is inspired by the true story of Benedetta Carlini, a religious woman who lived between the end of the 16th century and the 17th century, in Vellano, in the municipality of Pescia. Told in Judith C. Brown's book, Impudent Acts. Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. The film was shot with the support of Toscana Film Commission in the summer of 2018, between Montepulciano and San Quirico d'Orcia.

Virginie Efira is the protagonist of Blessed Virgin, erotic-religious film by Paul Verhoeven

The filming in Arezzo of Europa, by Florentine director Haider Rashid, at Cannes in the Directors' Fortnight section, also had the collaboration of Toscana Film Commission. The film tells the story of Kamal, a young Iraqi who tries to enter Europe on foot, across the border between Turkey and Bulgaria, but is caught by the Bulgarian border police. Once he manages to escape, he looks for a way out in the dense and endless Bulgarian forest, a sub-world where rules and law do not exist, in which he is injured by "migrant hunters". For three days and three nights Kamal struggles for survival, until a final confrontation between life and death.

Finally, the young man from Poggibonsi, Francesco Rossi, after being present in Cannes in 2019, for the film Passion Simple, by Danielle Arbid, of which he was assistant director, has made the short film La stanza più fredda, produced by his production company, Filmarea, on display at the festival at the Short Film Corner.